TEMPORARY AND CIRCULAR MIGRATION IN AUSTRIA A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON THE POPULATION REGISTER POPREG ( )

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1 TEMPORARY AND CIRCULAR MIGRATION IN AUSTRIA A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON THE POPULATION REGISTER POPREG ( ) Background Paper to the National Report Temporary and Circular Migration in Austria of the European Migration Network Stephan Marik-Lebeck The EMN was established via Council Decision 2008/381/EC. The National Contact Point Austria in the EMN is financially supported by the European Union and the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior.

2 Stephan Marik-Lebeck Temporary and Circular Migration in Austria A statistical analysis based on the Population Register POPREG ( )

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4 Stephan Marik-Lebeck TEMPORARY AND CIRCULAR MIGRATION IN AUSTRIA A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON THE POPULATION REGISTER POPREG ( ) Background Paper to the National Report Temporary and Circular Migration in Austria of the European Migration Network

5 The opinions presented in the study are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior and/or the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and/or Statistics Austria. Cover design: NNWest Print: Primerate Budapest Author: Stephan Marik-Lebeck Editor: International Organization for Migration in Vienna Nibelungengasse 13/ Vienna Translation from German to English: Claudia Gilli De cember 2011, International Organization for Migration in Vienna All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the editor. 4

6 1. INTRODUCTION Statistics Austria has been producing a comprehensive and continuous migration statistics since the reporting year The migration statistics or statistics of the spatial population mobility records all changes of places of residence within Austria as well as from other countries to Austria or from Austria abroad. Since 2002 all registration movements have been registered in the Central Register of Residents (CRR) of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Statistics Austria receives quarterly registration data from the CRR on all current registrations and changes. These are regularly incorporated into the population register (POPREG). Thus migration statistics since 2002 record all changes of the main residence pertaining to the legal duty of officially registering one s residence. In Austria, the Registration Act requires compulsory registration when staying for more than three days in the country. However, there is no definition in this regard that it needs to be a main residence registration. This restriction is only made for migration statistics, which uses only the registrations and de-registrations of main residences in Austria from the CRR, with an active registration covering at least 90 days. Shorter stays are only incompletely recorded by the registration system due to the mixture with tourist stays (visa with a validity of up to 90 days) and are consequently not included in the statistical evaluations. Secondary residence registrations are statistically not considered in order to just record each person in Austria once. Consequently, the following conditions, which are in line with the UN Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration1, apply for migration statistics: If a person deregisters with less than 90 days of continuous main residence registration in Austria and if he/she leaves for abroad, it is not registered in the migration statistics. If however there is another regis- 1 cf. United Nations (1998): Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, Revision 1, Statistical Papers Series M, No. 58, Rev. 1, para. 34; New York, available at (accessed on 15 November 2010) 5

7 tration of a main residence in Austria within 90 days after leaving the country, it will be regarded as internal migration, even if that person migrates abroad and subsequently re-emigrates from abroad. If the time period without an active registration of a main residence in Austria exceeds 90 days, emigration and immigration are recorded separately in the migration statistics. Persons with breaks in the registration of a main residence of less than 90 days are however recorded as having a continuous registration in population statistics. These registrations and de-registration are not recorded in migration statistics either in order to keep consistency with population stocks. The statistical implementation of the above mentioned conditions requires the analysis of the time period between two subsequent main residence registrations of the same person. This link is made in the population register POPREG by means of an anonymised personal identification number. In the event of a de-registration from Austria following a previous registration in Austria, the time period between de-registration and registration is the duration of stay in Austria. If the inverse event is the case, the duration of stay abroad can be deducted. 6

8 2. ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCULAR AND TEMPORARY MIGRATION IN THE POPULATION-STATISTIC POPULATION REGISTER POPREG As of November 2010 the population register POPREG includes all registration information for the time period between 1 January 2002 and 30 September According to the selected time period for the analysis of the duration of stay, information herewith becomes available with different degrees of completeness. 2.1 Temporary Migration in Austria Table 1 offers an overview of the number of inflows and outflows according to the selected time periods for the duration of stay in Austria for the years Inflows: Inflow Months 1 Year 5 Years Outflows: Long-Term Residence Temporary Stay Short-Term Migration Long-Term Migration Duration of stay in Austria Outflow 5 Years 1 Year 3 Months Long-Term Residence Long-Term Migration Short-Term Migration Temporary Stay Duration of stay in Austria Registrations with a duration of less than 90 days are excluded from the database, since they as has already been mentioned above are not taken into account for migration statistics. This also means that for instance harvest workers (who stay for up to six weeks) are not included. For areas indicated in blue, already valid information exists in the database as of 30 7

9 September In all other categories no final assertion can be made (yet) for example because not enough time has passed to achieve a correct classification of the duration of stay prior or after a registration. For the first reporting year 2002 no definitive duration of stay can be determined before an emigration abroad, since POPREG contains no information on possible registrations prior to 1 January Table 1: Inflows and Outflows by Reference Year and Duration of Stay in Austria, Source: Statistics Austria, Migration statistics As of 30 September 2010, for the grey shaded cells, valid information was (already) available in the POPREG database. The results of the analysis show that about 10-15% of all immigrants are registered in Austria for three to six months. Another 10% were stays with a length between six to twelve months, whereby in total about one fifth to one quarter of all inflows can be classified as short-term migration. In return, around three quarters of inflows stay for more than one year in Austria, whereas the (currently only available) results for show that around 60% also stay in Austria for longer than five years. Immigra- 8

10 tion to Austria is thus, to an extent of three fifths, geared towards longer stays. The situation is somewhat different in the case of outflows. Here, around one fifth of all de-registrations followed a stay of three to six months, with a further fifth having been effected within one year. Around two thirds of all emigrants had stayed in Austria for more than a year before they left, with - according to the definite results for the years the shares of stays of up to five years and over five years before they left amounting both to about one third. Consequently, emigration occurs to a larger extent after short-term stays in Austria. 2.2 Circular Forms of Migration in Austria Circular Mobility according to Zelinsky (1971) means spatial mobility mostly of a short duration and repetitive or cyclical nature, where any declared intention of permanently transferring one s main (usual) place of residence is missing. According to the frequency of occurrence or duration of absence from the main place of residence, four main groups can be distinguished: daily, periodical, seasonal or long-term circulation processes (Chapman and Prothero 1985). Official statistics in nearly all European countries (exceptions are Ireland, United Kingdom and Portugal) record spatial mobility across national boundaries by counts of residence registrations or residence permits and therefore through the analysis of administrative data. In many of these countries migrants are explicitly asked how long they intend to stay. Based on this it is concluded whether they should count as a migrant or not. In contrast, migration statistics in Austria are based upon an ex-post analysis of the actual time gap between subsequent registrations and de-registrations of the same person within Austria. As such, only changes of place of residence, which have been reported to the authorities, are taken into account, but not individuals residing irregularly. According to the above mentioned definitions only seasonal and longterm circulation processes are recorded in migration statistics, 2 which in contradiction to Zelinsky s definition do require the registration of a main 2 Information on a majority of the daily and periodically (e.g. weekly) circulation processes (professional and educational commuters) have been recorded up to the moment within the framework of the population census and will in the future also be available from the register counts. 9

11 residence. Additionally, the registration of a main residence in Austria, for instance, is a prerequisite to establish a bank account or receive social security subsidies. Due to the lack of international reconciliation of main residence registrations presumably the main residence in the migrant s country of origin is not given up and the persons concerned are possibly registered in several countries at the same time. Given the existence of a precise date of registration in case of registrations and de-registrations it is possible to determine the duration between a registration and the ensuing registration of the same person. This facilitates the calculation of the duration of stay of a person in Austria (timespan between registration and de-registration, including any possible changes of residence inside Austria), as well as of the duration of absence between a deregistration and a subsequent new registration in Austria, for which there is no valid registration in Austria. The latter can also be considered as the duration of stay abroad between two registrations in Austria. Furthermore, this coupling of several migration movements of one and the same person offers the possibility to get information on temporary and circular migration patterns. The analysis of subsequent registrations and de-registrations of individual persons makes it possible irrespective of the duration of stay in Austria to determine the partial quantity of those inflows, which are again followed, after some time, by an outflow, which terminates the stay in Austria. In this context, however, it must be noted that the available time series of information for persons having immigrated at the beginning of the reporting period is significantly longer than for persons having immigrated at the end of the reporting period. Therefore the share of multiple migrations in the earlier years under review both regarding inflows and outflows is significantly higher than in more recent years. In total of the years , for which migration statistics are available from the POPREG, 50% of the inflows from abroad were followed by at least one outflow from Austria (Table 2). In other words: only half of all people that immigrated to Austria since 2002 were continuously registered with a main residence in Austria until 1 January On the other hand, some 28% of all immigrants left Austria again and stayed abroad since then, while a further 10% of the immigrants temporarily emigrated again but came back to Austria for a second time. Almost half of those migrating to Austria more than once (in total nearly 5% of all immi- 10

12 grants) even displayed two or more circular external migration movements (immigration to Austria > emigration to abroad > immigration to Austria > emigration to abroad). In contrast, 71% of all emigrations to abroad were final, which means that until 1 January 2010 no further registration in Austria was recorded. In case of about 30% of all outflows no immigration had been previously recorded, either because it took place before 2002 or because it affected people born in Austria. A further 41% of emigrants had only come to Austria during the reporting period and thereby terminating a migration cycle by leaving for abroad. A total of 29% immigrated to Austria for at least one more time, with 10% having subsequently emigrated abroad again. Table 2: International migrations according to the number of further international migrations of the same person Source: Statistics Austria, Migration statistics Depending on nationality there were occasionally significant differences: among immigrants, Austrian nationals at 78% showed the highest percentage of single or final cases (indicating there was no further migration 11

13 abroad of the person during the reference period). EU 10 and EU 2 nationals had the highest share of multiple migration movements with about 50% of all inflows being followed by further migration movements. Unlike Austrian nationals, somewhat more than 40% of inflows were single cases, with a further 10% showing no further migration movements. The percentage of those who migrated to Austria more than twice was also highest among these two groups with 15% and 12% respectively. However, the share of multiple migration among EU 14 nationals was significantly lower. Consequently, 62% of EU 14 nationals immigrating to Austria during 2002 to 2009 were still registered in Austria on 1 January 2010, the share among German nationals being even as high as 67%. This indicates a different structure of migration (highly qualified persons, students) vis-à-vis EU 10 nationals and EU 2 nationals. Similarly, 62% of immigrants with thirdcountry nationality stayed in Austria until at least 1 January This was particularly true for Turkish nationals (77% of immigrants), while multiple migration was significantly higher among immigrants from former Yugoslavia (38%) as well as from other third countries (42%). 12

14 Figure 1: Numbers of further international migrations after immigration by nationality Source: Statistics Austria, Migration statistics Among emigrants the share of single cases was relatively lowest for Austrian nationals: 59% of those who emigrated during 2002 to 2009 did not re-immigrate to Austria until 1 January The share of those staying abroad permanently amongst EU 14 nationals was significantly higher, namely 88%. In contrast, nationals of former Yugoslavia (36%) and Turkey (31%) had the highest shares of persons having returned to Austria later on. 13

15 Figure 2: Numbers of further international migrations after an emigration by nationality Source: Statistics Austria, Migration statistics Duration of stay abroad of migrants immigrating to or emigrating from Austria In a further step the duration between the last de-registration in Austria and the subsequent registration can be assessed for the years 2003 up to This allows for statements about multiple (circular) migration movements of same person. 14

16 Inflows: Previous emigration from Austria Immigration to Austria 5 Years 1 Year 3 Months Long-term Residence Long-term migration Short-term migration Temporary stay Stay abroad Outflows: Emigration from Austria Subsequent immigration to Austria 3 Months 1 Year 5 Years Long-term Residence Temporary stay Short-term migration Long-term migration Stay abroad For the present analysis it has to be noted that for 2002 data on the duration of residence abroad prior to immigration is only available if it was shorter than one year. Moreover, at the time of writing no information on the duration of stay abroad upon an emigration for 2009 was available, since the final migration flows for 2010 were still pending. Table 3: Inflows and Outflows by stay abroad Source: Statistics Austria, Migration statistics

17 On average for , circular forms of migration made up about 21% of all inflows from abroad as well as about one third of all outflows. Circular forms of migration thus constitute independent of the length of stay a significant feature of Austrian migration flows. Disaggregated by the time span between two consecutive registrations in Austria, 13% all inflows occurred within a year of the last registration in Austria and another 8% after more than one year. About one fifth of all outflows had another immigration within one year, a further 12% after more than one year. 60% of circular inflows there had a gap of less than one year between two registrations in Austria. Further disaggregation showed nearly similar percentages for gaps of three to six months and gaps of six to twelve months. About 10% of immigrants coming back to Austria in 2009 had had their last registration in Austria more than five years before. Also 50-60% of circular emigrants came back within one year. However, 8% of those emigrating in 2002 came back only more than five years later. The predominance of short stays abroad between two registrations in Austria mainly results from patterns of seasonal activity of foreign citizens in tourism, agriculture and building and construction. 16

18 Table 4: Inflows and outflows by reference year and duration of stay abroad Source: Statistics Austria, Migration statistics Temporary and circular migration on average 2003/2008 As shown in the previous charts, the distribution of the lengths of stay in Austria and abroad only varies slightly. Thus further analysis of temporary and circular migration movements disaggregated by age and nationality on average was conducted. Disaggregated by age, the longer stays of people aged 0 to 17 in Austria stand out. This results from children and young people migrating mainly with other family members and thus tends to reflect the behaviour of the 26 to 59 year-aged. On average 2003/2008 a significantly higher percentage of shorter stays abroad between two stays in Austria can be observed among people aged 18 to 26. This points to more frequent employment in seasonal jobs, which is less steady compared to the appointment of older people. 17

19 Figure 3: Inflows 2003/2008 by duration of stay in Austria/ abroad and age groups Source: Statistics Austria, Migration Statistics Migration 2003/2008 by nationality and duration of stay in Austria A differentiation by nationality shows that EU 10 nationals and EU 2 nationals with about 35-40% of all immigration on average for the years make up the largest shares of stays of up to one year, while little surprising the immigrated Austrian citizens to an extent of 90% stay in Austria for longer than one year. However, immigrated third-country nationals also stayed, to an extent of about three quarters, in Austria for longer than one year. This definitely also has to do with the residence and settlement regulations, which, on the one hand, foresee primarily first residence permits for a period of up to 18 months, as well as, on the other hand, also with restrictions concerning the settlement of these groups in Austria. Furthermore, it must be taken into consideration that for non-eu-nationals family reunification plays an important role, which by trend occurs with the perspective of a longer stay in Austria. 18

20 Figure 4: Inflows on average 2003/2008 by nationality and duration of stay in Austria Source: Statistics Austria, Migration Statistics A similar picture is shown in the case of outflows. On average for the years , nearly half of the emigrating EU 10 nationals were registered in Austria for a shorter period than one year prior to their emigration. In contrast, Austrian nationals as well as non-eu nationals for the most part lived in Austria for longer than one year before they emigrated. It was also remarkable that outflows of EU and non-eu nationals were approximately equal in terms of their number (35% of all outflows respectively). In relation to the significantly smaller population of EU nationals who live in Austria, this underlines the much higher degree of mobility inside the EU, which, in turn, is also made possible by appropriate legal framework conditions (freedom of movement). 19

21 Figure 5: Outflows on average 2003/2008 by nationality and duration of stay in Austria Source: Statistics Austria, Migration Statistics Migration on average 2003/2008 by nationality and duration of stay abroad Overall, slightly more than 20% of all immigrants in 2003/2008 had been registered in Austria before. Disaggregated by nationality the share of returning immigrants was hardly surprising highest among Austrian nationals at 61%, while it was much lower among third-country nationals (15%) and EU-citizens (12%). The relatively highest shares were recorded for citizens of former Yugoslavia with 23%. 20

22 Total Austria Table 5: Circular forms of migration (inflows and outflows) on the average of 2003/2008 by nationality and stay abroad Non-Austrian EU 26 (total) of which: Nationality Immigrations (total) Source: Statistics Austria, Migration Statistics Immigrations with stay abroad between two registrations in Austria More than one Total Up to one year year abs. per cent abs. per cent abs. per cent 112,042 23,080 21% 14,589 13% 8,490 8% 16,564 10,086 61% 5,955 36% 4,132 25% 95,479 12,994 14% 8,635 9% 4,359 5% 46,412 5,462 12% 3,308 7% 2,154 5% EU 14 (accession before 2004) 22,507 1,510 7% 804 4% 706 3% of which: Germany 15, % 498 3% 436 3% EU 10 (accession 2004) 15,419 2,424 16% 1,546 10% 878 6% of which: Poland 5, % 521 9% 250 4% EU 2 (accession 2007) 8,487 1,528 18% % 570 7% of which: Romania 6,664 1,221 18% % 449 7% Third countries 49,067 7,532 15% 5,327 11% 2,205 4% of CH/ EEA % 23 3% 21 3% which: Former Yugoslavia without SI 17,098 3,980 23% 2,866 17% 1,115 7% Turkey 6, % % 320 5% Other Third countries 24,296 2,510 10% % 750 3% An analysis of the time gap between two consecutive registrations in Austria (which is considered in the present analysis as the length of stay abroad) showed that 13% of immigrants returned within one year after the last de-registration in Austria, with a further 8% returning after more than one year. Among immigrating Austrian citizens 36% had stayed abroad for less than one year and 25% for longer than one year. Among foreigners immigrating in , 9% had stayed abroad less than one year and only 5% for more than one year. For people benefitting from the freedom of establishment (i.e. EU-14- and EEA-citizens) longer stays abroad were of similar significance as shorter stays of up to one year; quite in contrast with citizens of EU member states since 2004 and non-eea-citizens, whose entry to Austria was legally restrained. Shorter stays abroad therefore prevailed among citizens of former Yugoslavia (17% of all people immigrating in ). 21

23 Figure 6: Inflows on average 2003/2008 by nationality and duration of stay abroad Source: Statistics Austria, Migration Statistics Among immigrants born outside the EU, naturalised citizens tend to have longer stays both within the country and abroad than foreign citizens. Among this group it seems that some of the outflows take place for administrative reasons (e.g. because of expired residence permits) and are followed by subsequent remigrations once a new residence title has been granted. The picture was similar for circular outflows from Austria: On average some 32% of emigrants in returned to Austria after staying some time abroad. With a share of 46%, their share was particularly high among Austrian nationals. Circular migration equally played an important role among emigrants with former Yugoslav (40%), Romanian and Bulgarian (36%) as well as Turkish nationality (33%). In contrast, the share of emigrants returning after some time was quite small for EU-14-citizens (14%) and EEA-citizens (10%). Overall, short stays abroad of up to one year at 20% of all outflows in 2003/2008 were significantly higher than longer absences of more than one year (12%). This was especially true for third-country nationals with a share of 21% for short-term stays of up to one year, but only 9% of all 22

24 emigrants returning after more than one year. The percentage of short stays abroad for up to a year was highest among citizens of former Yugoslavia and Austrian nationals at 29%. Among EU-14 nationals on the other hand only 7% of the emigrants returned to Austria within a year and another 7% after over a year. Table 6: Outflows on average 2003/2008 by nationality and duration of stay abroad Nationality Emigrations (total) Source: Statistics Austria, Migration Statistics Emigrations with stay abroad between two registrations in Austria More than one Total Up to one year year abs. per cent abs. per cent abs. per cent Total 73,730 23,415 32% 14,611 20% 8,804 12% Austria 21,743 9,958 46% 5,890 27% 4,068 19% Non-Austrian 51,987 13,457 26% 8,721 17% 4,736 9% EU 26 25,966 5,827 22% 3,375 13% 2,452 9% of which: EU 14 11,893 1,640 14% 833 7% 807 7% Germany 6,920 1,044 15% 527 8% 517 7% EU 10 9,281 2,485 27% 1,520 16% % Poland 2, % % % EU 2 4,792 1,703 36% 1,022 21% % Romania 3,728 1,364 37% % % Third countries 26,021 7,630 29% 5,346 21% 2,284 9% CH/ EEA % 24 5% 24 5% of Former Yugoslavia without SI 9,913 3,960 40% 2,851 29% 1,109 11% which: Turkey 2, % % % Other Third countries 12,682 2,636 21% 1,805 14% 831 7% 23

25 3. CONCLUSIONS PROPOSALS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF DATA COLLECTION METHODS Temporary and circular forms of migration are, even if only to a small extent, integrative components of international migration flows to Austria. On average around 13% of the immigrants stayed in the country for only three to six months, another 11% for only six to twelve months. As such, one quarter of the inflows amount to short stays of up to a year. Among the emigrants the share of persons who stayed in Austria for up to one year is even higher at 36%. Over one third of the emigrants from Austria thus can be allotted to short-time migration. In total, 20% of the emigrants were only registered in Austria for three to six months; 16% for six to twelve months. The analysis of consequent registrations and de-registrations of individuals in Austria furthermore emphasizes the significance of circular migration patterns. In total, about 21% of all immigrants had already been registered in Austria before and 32% of all emigrants returned to Austria. Depending on nationality the significance of temporary and circular migration patterns was fairly different. Short stays in Austria were of greater significance among EU nationals than among third-country nationals. The assumption that freedom of movement induces an intensification of circular migration patterns could be confirmed only to a limited extent with the present data. Although EU-citizens displayed a slightly higher percentage of multiple migration movements than third-country nationals, the differences were insignificant. Moreover third-country nationals had shorter stays between two registrations in Austria than EU-citizens. Based on the data at hand, it was not possible to determine to what extent circular migration is induced by the legal regulations to (re)acquire a residence title. For further analysis of the underlying structures of the observed patterns, an expansion of the available characteristics would be useful. In this context a link of the information of the registration system (CRR/PO- 24

26 PREG) with the information on residence permits as well as work permits could above all be of importance, since this would enable an analysis of temporary and circular migration flows also in terms of legal and corresponding to the legally defined purposes of residence - indirectly also according to socio-economic categories. 25

27 References Chapman, Murray and Prothero, Ralph M. (eds.) 1985 Circulation in Third World Countries. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Registration Act, BGBl. No 9/1992 in the version of BGBl. I No. 33/2006. United Nations 1998 Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration. Revision 1. Statistical Papers Series M, No. 58, Rev. 1, para 34, available at publication/seriesm/seriesm_58rev1e.pdf (accessed on 21 October 2010). Zelinsky, Wilbur 1971 The hypothesis of the mobility transition. Geographical Review, 61(2), pp

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